Lian Li PC-X1000
Category : Cases
Published by Tanya Rothenburg on 15.09.09
Lian Li seems to have made an almost perfect full tower case. With for example only 9.89 kg it is very light even if it is very big. As every high-end Lian Li case the PC-X1000 is made of brushed aluminum but this time you get 2 mm thick aluminum plates all around the case. Furthermore five fans should keep your precious interior cool at a low noise level. Quite ahead of time is the fact that the case comes with two 2.5'' alumium handles to mount SSD's or other 2.5'' drives.
On the following pages we will show you
the strengths and weaknesses of the Lian Li PC-X1000.
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Preview
Specifications
| Model |
Lian Li PC-X1000 |
| Case Type |
Super Full Tower |
| Dimensions |
230mm x 680mm x 430mm (W, H, D) |
| Material |
Aluminium |
| Color |
black |
| Weight |
9.89kg |
| 5.25'' drive
bay |
3(one for 3.5 inch convertor) |
| 3.5'' drive bay |
6x |
| Expansion
slots |
8 |
| Form factors |
ATX / M-ATX |
| Cooling |
3x 140mm Ball-Bearing Fan @ 1200RPM (Front), 2x 140mm Ball-Bearing Fan @ 1200 RPM (back)
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| I/O ports |
USB2.0 x 4 / IEEE1394 x 1 / E-SATA x 1 / HD+AC97 Audio |
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Front
Overview |
Features |
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| The front of the PC-X1000 is kept in typical Lian Li Design with rounded edges. Visible elements are the three 140mm intake fans, the three Multibay slots and the LCD panel. Usually the frontpanel can be removed, but this time the case is in one piece. It is a simple and straight design. |
The Multibay has two mounting bars to fix the drives without using any screwdriver. |
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| Additionally the mounting bars are equiped with rubber pads to keep the drives tightly in place. They even reduce noise and vibration produced by the drives. |
The fans in the front have been divided into a double fan block and a single one. Both can be removed by loosening the thumbscrews on both sides of the fans. |
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| On top of the fans is an airfilter which can be removed and cleaned easily. |
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Back
Overview |
Features |
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| On the backside there are two 140mm exhaust fans which carry anti vibration rubber grommets and therefore produce as good as no vibration noise. There are eight slot bezels and the power supply mounting kit. |
Lian Li integrated a fancontroller which is almost hidden at the back. Users can adjust the fan speed by using the controllerswitch and choose between three different fanspeeds. |
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| The Sidepanels can be released be pushing the handles on the corresponding site. One of the handles can be secured with a lock. |
There are already two rubber covered holes for watertubes when using a liquid cooling system. |
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| The Power supply slot bars are coated with anti vibration rubber strips. |
To exchange any PCI card, Lian Li has added snap closing clips. The part, where the clip-mechanism gets contact to the card, is equipped with rubber pads to reduce noise and keep it safe and tight in place. |
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Left Side
Overview |
Features |
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| Also with the side panels you'll find perfectly brushed aluminium as well as almost perfect fitting. At this point we have to mention even the case is not cheap, the quality shows all it's benefits. If we remove the side panel, we find lots of space to install hardware. If you'd like to install a very long graphic card like for example an nVidia GTX 295 or an ATI Radeon 4870 X2 this isn't a problem at all thanks to the cases comfortable depth. |
Within the PC-X1000 you now have the opportunity to also install two 2.5'' drive which means that for example SSDs do not have to be built into 5.25'' slots. There are two aluminium handles where the 2.5'' drives can be placed with the corresponding screws and anti vibration rubber ring grommets, to keep the harddrives in place. |
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| There are two harddrive cages in the case which can be removed for better installation of the harddrives or even to get some more space. One cage is located in the upper part of the case and the other is found on the bottomplate. Up to six harddrives can be installed easily with the special screws delivered with the case. Just fix the harddrive in the cage with the corresponding screws, delivered. |
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Right Side
Overview |
Features |
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| Also the PC-X1000's right side panel is perfectly decent manufactured. It is possible to attach some noise reduction mats or even use it for a beautiful casemod. The mainboard tray has an additional hole for better cablemanagement. There is also another one to install a CPU cooler without removing the mainboard even if your cooler comes with a backplate. |
The Mainboard backplate can be removed for better installation of needed hardware. At this side you will find the fan connectors for the fan controller which can be adjusted from the backpanel. |
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Top
Overview / Features |
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All connectors including the power and reset switches are located at the top panel. All connectors can be accessed easily. |
Bottom
Overview |
Features |
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| The PC-X100 is delivered with the standard feet which can be replaced with the wheels from the Lian Li product line. Unfortunately the edges of the Feets are very sharp and can cut in the worst case. Here we would appreciate it if the edges of the feet could be rounded or even covered with some rubber material. |
In the bottom of the cage there are some airducts which are covered with a removable airfilter. |
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Conclusion
Lian Li has manufactured with the PC-X1000 a very high quality case that is made completely out of aluminium. Apart from the sharp edges on the feet, the Case is very close to perfection. Simply the price could be breathtaking but therefore you will get a fully developed Lian Li highlight.
Aside from the really small errors in the stand feet, the PC-X1000 is an alomost perfect product. For example, it has a superb room concept which delivers plenty of space to install even the biggest graphic cards or mainboards. Lian Li has developed a three zone thermal-concept for the PC-X1000 which does a very good job keeping your components cool. The manufacturing quality is on the highest level we ever seen. Almost all edges have been folded and deburred what prevents sore or even cut fingers during installation. The Harddisks can quickly and simply be installed by attaching the supplied screws into the corresponding harddrive-cage. In the front there are three 140mm fans each supplied with an air filter. All Fans can be removed/tightened with thumbscrews aside the fans. There are also two 140mm fans located at the back of the case, using anti vibration rubber rings. All the Fans can be connected to the integrated fan controller. Even the installation of a long nVidia GTX 295 or even ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card is due to the depth of the case no problem. Thanks to the 2.5'' handles you can now also install SSD's or 2.5'' drives without waisting a 3.5'' slot for this purpose. Another positive impression we get with the quick release clamps for the PCI cards, which can be installed quickly and easily as well as toolless. The side panels are made of 2mm thick aluminum and can be insulated if required. The PC-X1000 is delivered from factory with the well known Lian Li bezels which hide 5.25'' drives decently.
If you are looking for a full tower case which is very close to perfection you will definitely have to check out the PC-X1000. In the full-tower league you probably won't find an overall better case no matter if you're an enthusiast, hardcore gamer or office/desktop user.
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Author:
t.rothenburg@ocaholic.ch
Redacted by:
m.buechel@ocaholic.ch
